5 Songs We Loved This Week | 3rd November 2017

This is simple. We love these songs. You should listen and tell us what you think of them.

Let me also point out that this is not necessarily focused on new songs. Just what we’ve been listening to and loving this week.

Jameson Nathan Jones – ‘Awake’

Composer/producer Jameson Nathan Jones has pretty handy talent. He takes elements of post-rock, dance music, ambiance, and ties it all toghether in a beautiful and emotional package. ‘Awake’ is a perfect example of this. Combining synths with live instruments such as prepared piano, violin, and cello, the track swirls and streams in a flow that is balletic in execution. It is the closing track from his newest release, What Dreams May Come, which you should listen to immediately.

Granite Hands – ‘Oscar The Great’ & ‘Icicle Man’

The name of this one man project might suggest that the music there-in is sluggish and basic. It is anything both. Granite Hands is a math influenced inspired project that also touches on flourishes of post hardcore and even jazz. It is a dexterous and energetic endeavour that bounces and blasts in equal measure. Go check more out on Bandcamp.

More instrumentals here. This time more influenced by the pummeling noise rock of the likes of The Jesus Lizard. Having said that, there are also flourishes of prog and general post rock experimentation. You just must love those song titles too. They’re imbued with that sardonic sense of humour that was so prevalent in the mainstream in the 1990’s. Damn I miss that humour. It is my humour! Check out their latest EP, Hard Boiled Infinite Crustacean, on Bandcamp.

Death & The Penguin – ‘Kill Saatchi’

Let’s have something a bit more direct. Death & The Penguin mine a vein that sits somewhere between Incubus and AT The Drive-In. As such this is frantic, energetic, but with big choruses. Things I like about them: 1. They take their name from Ukrainian social commentator Andrey Kurkov, 2. Is the song about Iraqi-British businessman Charles Saatchi?, 3. The artwork is taken from photographer Tom Brannigan’s ‘Resistance’ project, which he produced in collaboration with Guy Tarrant, a conceptual artist who has been collecting confiscated items from secondary school children in the greater London area for over a decade. It’s about time things got a bit more conceptual!

The Holy Gasp – ‘Beat Wave’

The Holy Gasp play what I like to call ‘beat punk’. It’s like Allen Ginsberg fronting some kind of frantic and experimental post-punk band. My favourite thing about it is that it seems to be entirely serious and tongue-in-cheek at the same time. God knows I love music that is both amusing and serious at the same time. I mean, life is a joke, but the most serious joke ever told. The Holy Gasp reflect that. Plus, there’s a bit of a nod to Faith No More in this track. Which makes me delighted.

Jamie Coughlan is the founder of Overblown. He talks a lot about himself and is totally pretentious. Terrible with personal finances. Loves beer gardens. He has written for the RTE Guide, A Music Blog, Yea?, The Thin Air, Gigwise, and is a contributor to The Tipping Point.

Overblown is all about subterreanean music. We aim to champion bands and record labels that we are passionate about and are overlooked and undervalued by the mainstream media machine, while still paying homage to the iconic bands and labels who laid and developed the groundwork for today’s emerging talent.